Crystal Throne (Book 1) (15 page)

After the scions told them the story, Humanius asked many question and Thad found his mind drifting in and out of the conversation. He didn’t know how the story of how everything happened mattered to what was going to happen, but it seemed important to Belaroan and Humanius so he kept his words to himself.

Finally after the gods had all the answers they needed, they talked about what really mattered, what they would find when they reached the city called Coren, or at one time had been called by that name. It was pretty straight forward, there would be many scions, but little else. The real worry was the scion mage that had once been one of the silver skinned gods that had fought with Costigain. They had large powers and while it was possible to move around them, it would have been foolish to leave it behind to tell of their powers, plans, or worse to join one of the other mages.

In the end, there was little to plan for as the scions couldn’t tell what they would find. Each mage was different and fought with their own style and none of the scions knew which mages had found homes where. Getting information would be key and doing it without being noticed would be paramount.  

CHAPTER XV

Just as planned, they left as soon as the sun peaked above the horizon. From what Humanius had said, it would take more than two weeks for them to reach the city and that was if they moved at a slow pace. Most likely, they would be there in eight or nine days though that was only if things went as planned.

As they exited the mine, Thad had to shield his eyes as the sun assaulted them. Even though he had only spent a few days underground, it reminded his when he had left the Underearth after spending over a year in the darkness.

As Thad thought about that time in his life, he began to miss Crusher and Avalanche. They had been his only real friends during that time in his life and if not for them he most likely would have lost his mind.

Oh, you act as if I were not even there. If I remember correctly, I was the only one who you could really talk to.

“It was because of you that I thought I was losing my mind,” Thad said with a hidden laugh. It was true though, Crusher had been hurt and left without the ability to speak, but just having them around had helped calm his sense of loneliness.

Everyone seemed to pair off with their scion counterpart as they walked, leaving Thad alone with Heratio. Thad had plenty of questions and problems plaguing him, but none of those were ones that the scion could answer. The largest question in his mind was what was he going to tell Maria next time she pulled him into her dream? She wouldn’t be happy that was for sure. Thad thought about hiding it from her, but that would only make things harder if he ever did make it back home. If he told her now she would be mad, but most likely demand he find some way to change things. Thad knew that there was nothing he could do to save his son; the mother had made the truth known to him and Bren had chosen his own path.

Knowing that no answer would come to his problem, Thad turned his attention to other matters; ones that were a little more manageable like how to solve all the world’s ills, starting with the scion mages. He knew that magic would aid him little; the only real power he had here that could be of use was his enchanting.

Deep below the earth, in the mine, there had been plenty of metal ore that had been left untouched by the ether. He had gathered as much as he could the night before they left and placed it in his pack, and now he just had to find ways to use it.

Thad had thought of numerous ideas that might help them against the other scions, but only one of them really stood out in his mind, though he didn’t know if he could make it work. The idea had come to him when he thought about what Humanius had said about the white swords of the Brotherhood. They didn’t cut through magic the way Bren’s glass sword did, but instead they absorbed it and passed it along to the god. If he could do the same thing then his sword might be able to match the power of the scions and he wouldn’t just be a hindrance to the others when a fight started. There had be more than he could do beside close the doorways. The question was to find a place that could store the massive amount of magical energy that the scions carried within them.

The first problem answered itself quickly. The only thing that he was sure that could handle that much magical energy was the crystal that surrounded them. He didn’t know if it would react badly with the ring he had made, but as he thought about it, he was sure that it wouldn’t create a disharmony between the two. Only one of them would draw power from the crystal, the other would send power to it. While they were two different enchanted items they worked in different aspects so he wouldn’t have to fear destroying the world beneath their very feet.

The second problem was how to make a spell that siphoned magic. Thad had asked Humanius how the spell worked, but this was one thing the god didn’t seem to be able to help with. Unlike Thad, Humanius was a god and used his own blood to make a bond between the swords and himself and that was something that was beyond Thad; not to mention if he did that, then he would absorb the magic and that would be a death sentence.

Thad mulled over the problem while he walked, hardly paying attention to the world around him. It wasn’t until he felt something shaking him that he noticed that Heratio was shaking his shoulder with a look of worry etched on his crystal face. “Mother says that your mind was drifting. She said that is dangerous for you. She fears that the ether might take you.”

“I thought that the ether wanted my help?” Thad asked, looking at his scion keeper. “Why would it take me when doing so would ruin its plans?”

Heratio shook his head and a frown formed on his face and Thad could tell that the creature was fighting with how to form his words. “The ether is many voices and not all of them are in harmony, and even less so now that the usurpers have tainted them. Part of it wishes your help, but that part has separated and become mother. The ether is not like you or I. It doesn’t just think of one thing; it thinks of all things and gives form when there is need.”

“You don’t make much sense,” Thad said with a hint of frustration.

“You ask hard questions,” Heratio replied, still frowning. “Think of the ether like an ocean and each thought just a drop of water. When enough thoughts feel the same way, a part of the ether breaks off and forms its own entity, but the rest remains behind.”

Thad still didn’t completely understand what the ether was, but he did understand a few things. The ether was important and dangerous and he couldn’t wait to have it walled off back in its own world, though that would mean the loss of his son.

Thinking once again about his son’s fate made Thad scowl. He had just been reunited and now time was fading fast and he still didn’t know what to say to him. Knowing that this was their only real time together didn’t make things easier; in fact, in many ways, it made it harder. Before there was just an awkwardness between them, but now there was an added tension that was almost palatable when the two were alone.

Thad tried to work up his courage to speak to Bren, but as he approached his son, he found doubts entering his mind and soon he was once again falling to the back of the group with only Heratio to keep him company.

“What can I say to him?” Thad asked more to himself than the scion.

“I never had children and Mother seems just as lost as you about how best to approach the young master,” Heratio replied.

“I thought it was dangerous for the mother to talk over distance?” Thad asked, looking at the scion.

Heratio raised his hand to show only four fingers, the smallest one having been removed. “Even though removed, any part of our body is still part of us and mother can use it to commune with us, no matter how far apart as we were. The usurpers might sense my own magic traveling across the either, but it is unlikely as it would be too weak to draw their attention.”

“Even after being removed it still remains part of you?” Thad asked as an idea formed in his mind.

“Yes,” Heratio said. “I can still feel it and if I wished I could reattach it if I had it with me.”

“Thank you for letting me know,” Thad said, as his mind began to work. If he took a part from the earth and it could be reminded where it came from, then it shouldn’t be that hard for Thad to pass energy from one back to its source. He hadn’t done that with the ring. He had simply created a link between the earth and the ring like he did with many other gems when he enchanted.

Thad stopped and using the hilt of his sword broke a small piece of crystal from the ground. Enchanting was unlike any other magic. He didn’t so much peer into the stone as it opened itself up to him. There was no strain nor call of the ether as there was when he tried to open himself to the world around him. It was the opposite, as if the crystal heard his call. The more Thad thought about it, the more that sounded right to his ears. Mother had said that enchanters were rare because they must be born with part of the ether. Not just simple magic, but an understanding of the ether inborn within their minds. From what she had said, it was bread through generations, and was unique to bloodlines. Thad didn’t know why that seemed important, but somewhere in his mind he knew that it did, he just didn’t know why.

It wasn’t hard for him to remind the stone of the link it had with the earth. It didn’t create a link as most connections he had made. There was no line of magic connecting the stone in his hand to that beneath his feet; instead it was like the stone was still resting within the earth’s bosom. “Thuraman, can you send some magical energy into the crystal? More than it can hold.”

Without asking questions, Thad felt the staff pull in a large amount of energy and push it into the crystal until it pulsed with energy, but after an hour it never felt as if it would rupture.

I can do no more. If I take in or release any more energy then I fear one of my gems will crack. From what I can tell your test has worked. The energy is being absorbed by the stone, yet it is going elsewhere though I cannot follow where.

It had worked like Thad had thought it would. He didn’t know how the energy moved from the stone into the earth without a connected line between the two, but it did and that was all that mattered at the moment. He would have plenty of time in the future to figure out the why. Now he just had to find a way to make his sword absorb magical energy and that would be hard without being able to play around with his own magic to see what worked and what didn’t. Pulling in magical energy was one thing but breaking down spells and other magical entities was something altogether different.

Thad picked up another crystal, and using its magic, placed the first crystal into the blade of his sword. His first thought was to put it into the hilt of the weapon, but he was sure if the enchantment were to work, it would have to be touching the metal directly.

Give me a day or two to recharge, then I might be able to help you. I know you like to forget, but I can still use magic and even if you haven’t imprinted the spell, I can now use spells that you wish for me to use much more readily.

“I do tend to forget about that,” Thad said, laughing to himself. He didn’t know what had happened to the staff when his son had held it, but there had been changes. The staff was stronger now and could use magic freely without his aid. Before he had to call the staff for it to come to him, either knowingly or unknowingly. The staff could do nothing on its own, but now it had its own…Will. Thad could think of nothing else to call it. He didn’t know why, but the thought of Thuraman acting on its own bothered him. As long as he was around he could hold Thuraman in check, but some day he would be gone and there was no telling what trouble the staff might cause.

After all these years, you still have no faith in me.

“I trust you,” Thad said to Thuraman. “I trust you to be you, just as I trust Maria will make my life hell for years when she learns of our son’s fate.”

CHAPTER XVI

They made good speed and within six days they were now close to the city that housed the scion mage. Oddly enough, Thad didn’t need to be told that they were close, the change was obvious. The world around them had changed with each mile that they drew closer to the city. At first, it was small things like the crystal grass looking more green, then the multicolored crystal the world was made of, but the closer they drew the more the world mimicked the landscape he was used to until Thad could almost swear that the grass moved with the wind.

Thad hadn’t spent his time idly. He had found a way to absorb magical energy. It had not be an easy task, but like most things the answer was simple once he understood what he was really doing. It didn’t require him to destroy magic, just simply break it down at the smallest parts. It still had its weak points. Just like the white swords, it couldn’t affect attacks that used magic indirectly, but he hoped that it would take the scion mages more than a few moments to understand how the sword worked and if he was lucky, they wouldn’t figure it out at all.

Once the city came into sight, the small group moved back and camped out of view of those below. From a distance, there was still a chance of a scion coming across them and rising some kind of alarm, but it was a risk they would have to take. They needed information and the only way they could get it was to send down one of the scions to enter the city to see what they could learn.

The main question was which scion would enter the city. Belaroan was quick to offer Jindra, the scion that had been shadowing her. It didn’t seem as if one would be better than the others, so no one complained, but Thad felt a tingle of pity for the scion.

By the time their camp was set up, it was too dark for Jindra to go into the city with any hope of finding out anything of use, so it was decided that it would be best to wait until morning. The fewer times that she went into the city the less chance that she or they would be discovered.

Thad found a place that, while hidden, still looked down at the city. For a city of scion, there was much more movement below than one would have expected. From his spot, Thad couldn’t make out the creatures below, but something seemed off. The longer he watched and the sun set completely, everything clicked in his mind. The houses below had lights burning. Scions had no need of light. Something was different and he wanted to know what and he didn’t want to wait for it, but he knew going down there himself would endanger the others as well as himself.

Knowing nothing would be settled that night, Thad moved back to the camp and found his bedroll. The vision of the city ran through his mind and each viewing left him more perturbed than the last. As he drifted off to sleep, Thad was more unnerved than he had been hours before when he was sitting on the small hill overlooking the city.

As Thad dreamed, he felt the dark pull and this time there was no mistaking that it was his wife that was trying to contact him. He didn’t fight the coming darkness, but he didn’t embrace it either. As the darkness cleared around him, Thad’s mind whirled with what he would tell Maria about their son.

When the darkness receded, Thad found himself standing before the Farlan throne. The look on his wife’s face told him that she already knew the bad news and she was far from happy. “Dear,” Thad said putting on the best smile he could muster. “It is good to see you.”

“Don’t even try,” Maria barked, her eyes boring into him. “Sandrea told me what Bren had to say. What are you thinking, letting our son agree to be left behind? You promised me that you would bring him home.” Maria raised her voice again, though her eyes had tears teasing at their edges.

“Maria,” Thad said, edging closer to where she sat. “It wasn’t my choice to make. I didn’t want this for him and it is tearing me up inside as much as it is you.”

“No it isn’t,” Maria yelled, her voice breaking for the first time. “You weren’t there to watch him grow up. You were gone, and now my baby is gone, and it’s your fault.”

“That isn’t fare” Thad said, though his voice held very little strength to it. “I didn’t want him to come, hell I didn’t want to come, but I had to. Keeping him safe was all that mattered, but he has grown up and we can’t make choices for him,” Thad’s voice gained strength with each word until he was nearly screaming.

Maria didn’t reply, instead she broke into loud sobs. Thad rushed up to his wife and wrapped his arms around her. He had no words of comfort, all he could do was hold her until the darkness claimed him and brought him back to his own world and that was what he intended to do.

As the sun rose and Thad stirred from his troubled slumber, the events of the night still haunted him. It didn’t help that the first sight he saw was his son sitting in the distance talking to one of the scions. He knew that somewhere deep down Maria understood that there was nothing that he could do about their son’s choice to stay, but that didn’t mean that this wouldn’t hang over his head for the rest of his life.

When Thad woke, he found that Jindra had already left for the city and the rest were simply waiting for her return. With little to do, Thad took a seat on the rise of a small hill that overlooked the city below.

From where he sat, it looked like thousands of scions moved around below. The longer he waited the odder the actions of the creatures below bothered him. The few scions they had met, besides the ones they traveled with, moved with a singular purpose that had been given to them by whoever controlled them, yet the creatures below moved through the city in a way that reminded Thad of any city back home. Thad had to fight off the urge to go down to the city and find out the truth for himself.

Jindra returned shortly before midday. Thad had seen her approach long before she arrived and had returned to the camp in order to welcome her back and to hear what she had learned from her trip.

The tale Jindra came back with was far different than anything that they could have imagined. The city was not full of scions, but of normal humans. The few scions that Jindra had seen worked like guards and seemed to keep the peace. “The people of the city kept their distance and the few that would talk to me kept their eyes lowered and trembled as if they were afraid that I might hurt them if their answers displeased me.”

“How are there humans living there?” Thad asked confused. “Wouldn’t the thick concentration of magical energy kill them?”

“There was just enough magical energy to keep a scion from dying,” Jindra replied. “The only place in the city with a large concentration of energy was near the center where their scion lord has taken up residence.”

“What did you learn about their lord?” Humanius asked, looking off toward the city.

“Little,” Jindra replied. “The people of the city see little of him. I don’t understand it, honestly. We can’t eat or sleep so what do they want with the other worlds, and why bring them here?”

“That is easy enough to answer,” Belaroan said with a smirk. “What use is power if you have no one to lord it over?”

“Seems reasonable,” Thad said as he thought it over. “Eternal life with only a few people to converse with would be torture. My real question is how are they blocking off the ether so that the humans can live there without dying or turning to scions?”

“I can’t answer for certain, but with the level of magical energy it would take centuries for a normal human to turn to a scion,” Jindra replied. “I am sure there are some health problems, but for most it would take years for any of them to show any real problems and even then it would be hard to tell if it was of natural causes or not.”

“Is it safe for us to go into the city?” Bren asked casually.

“It should be, but most of you would stand out. Master Thaddeus, on the other hand, would draw little attention and being human, he might be able to learn more than I could.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Thad said, jumping at the chance to be in an area that would keep him from turning to crystal as fast. He also wanted to see with his own eyes what was going on within the walls of the city.

Thad wasted no time and left before anyone could raise an objection. Thad did his best to approach the city without anyone seeing him, though it wasn’t hard as few people came near the edge of the city. There was no obvious sign of where the magic began to weaken, but Thad felt it as soon as he crossed the invisible line. It was almost as if a large weight had been lifted from his chest. It wasn’t clear to him how sluggish he had felt until the moment he crossed over, but now he felt as refreshed as if he had just woken from a long slumber.

Thad found the city much the same as any other. Vendors lined the main street selling their goods. Thad made his way to a blacksmith shop that was located near the edge of what he surmised was the market district of the city. Inside, Thad found it much different than he had expected. Back home, blacksmiths hung armor in the windows and swords and shields lined the walls of most shops, but Thad couldn’t spot a single weapon in sight.

“What can I do for you?” A young boy, barely able to see over the counter, asked.

“I was looking for a new sword,” Thad said, as his eyes moved over the shops wares.

“Sword sir,” the young boy said, his voice slightly wavering. “You know that any weapon is banned within the colony unless you are an arena fighter.”               

“No, I was unaware of that,” Thad replied, trying to think. “I have just arrived and it was not mentioned when I passed over.”

“You are new?” The boy asked. “What is the homeland like? My father talks about it all the time.”

“Jake, who are you talking to?” a deep voice bellowed from the back of the shop.

“A new comer father,” the boy replied in a high tenor.

A large man with short cropped hair wearing a thick leather apron walked through the door. “Newcomer eh?” the man said as he moved around the counter to stand in front of Thad. After looking over Thad for a few moments, his eyes lingering on the sword that hung on his belt. “Mind coming with me sir? I think there are a few things we should talk about.”

The large man led Thad through a large door that led outside, where Thad felt the heat of the forge. As the heat washed over him it, brought with it forgotten memories of the time he had spent with the dwarves. Shortly after the door had closed, the large blacksmith rounded on Thad. “My boy might not know people from his own world, but I lived there for nearly twenty years before I was forced to come here.”

“How were you forced to come here?” Thad asked, not even paying attention to the fact that the blacksmith towered over him with arms as big as Thad’s legs.

“First, why don’t tell me where you came from and how you got here,” the blacksmith said, looking down at Thad like a piece of metal that needed shaping.

“A doorway between my world and this one opened up,” Thad explained. “We came through to figure out how to close it and got roped into trying to close the others as well.” The explanation was short, but Thad was sure that it covered enough to make the other man happy.

“Didn’t know there was a new one,” the blacksmith said with a frown. “Don’t know how long ago, but some weird crystal men came into our world. At first they only lived for a few hours before crumbling, but somehow they learned how to live in our world, but still we outnumbered them greatly and when fighting was proving fruitless they turned to trade. In ten years’ time they had their own kingdom and started forcing us to come to their land.”

“Why?” Thad asked.

“Don’t rightly know, but I wish I could see my home once again,” the blacksmith said. “The creatures don’t ask much from us, but they don’t give us much either. Most of us eek by a living, but a few fight in the arena.”

“Arena,” Thad said. Back in the school there had been an arena. It was a place for the slaves to show off their skills and hopefully raise their ranks and privileges.

“Yes, the lord allows any who wish to try their hand in the area and is often bringing over new fighters and animals over from our world. The best he sends to fight against the other lords. The best arena fighters are allowed whatever they want and often treat the rest of us as their slaves. My son sees them as heroes, but soon he will learn that most of them are as bad as the lord they serve.”

“Does the lord watch the arena battles?” Thad asked, as an idea began to bloom in his mind.

“He watches some matches, but only if the fighter is believed to be good enough to fight against the other lords.”

You’re not thinking about what I think you are. It has been ages since you last fought in a real battle. One of these younger men will beat you around like an old man.

“It has only been a few years,” Thad replied. “Time didn’t flow the same inside the void. I am sure that I am god enough to get the scion lords attention.”

What would you do then? Try to reach him and fight against him on your own.

“No, I am not crazy,” Thad replied. “But right now it doesn’t matter. I have learned what I needed. I will go back to the others and see what they think of my plan.”

Thad found the others waiting on him when he returned. They didn’t even give him time to rest before drowning him in question. Thad explained what he had found and learned, then he let them in on the plan he had devised.

“So your plan is to join in these fights until the lord comes to watch you fight and then we will attack him?” Humanius asked.